My YouTube browsing that led me to a film of Miles Davis’ “Second Great Quintet” this past Monday led me to another European performance by a leading icon of inventive modern jazz. Indeed, before pianist Bill Evans began working as a leader with particular attention to trio performances, he was the pianist in the Miles Davis sextet that recorded Kind of Blue, which was declared to be the best-selling jazz album of all time in 2008 by Time (not the most authoritative magazine for those that take jazz seriously). Evans may not have had the “household” familiarity that Davis experienced, but it would be hard pressed to think of any major jazz pianist today that does not have at least one Evans original in his/her book.
Chuck Israels, Bill Evans, and Larry Bunker in the BBC London Studio (screen shot from the YouTube video being discussed)
The Evans video I discovered was recorded in London at the BBC Studios on March 19, 1965. It consists of performances for two separate programs in a series called Jazz 625 hosted by Humphrey Littelton. The programs themselves were recorded back-to-back before the same audience; but they were probably broadcast separately. Evans led a trio whose other members were Chuck Israels on bass and Larry Bunker on drums.
When he was not playing his own music, Evans had a tendency to work with tunes so traditional that the more rabid modernists would tend to dismiss them as “too square.” The best example of that side of Evans’ taste can be found on this YouTube video in his performance of “Someday My Prince Will Come,” which Frank Churchill composed for Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. To be fair, however, Davis had recorded his take on this tune for Columbia in March of 1961, while Evans’ recording session (with Israels and Bunker) for the song took place in July of 1964! The less surprising standards offerings include “Summertime,” “My Foolish Heart,” and “How Deep is the Ocean?”
The Evans originals are far more limited. “Waltz for Debby” closes out the second of the two programs; and both programs are framed at the beginning and end by “Five.” The second program also includes the Davis original “Nardis.” The fact is that Evans shows consistently generous respect for other people’s music, and it is not difficult to buy into the inventions he concocts to garnish these tunes.
If my patience is ever strained, it is with his preference for the partnership of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. The second BBC program includes “Who Can I Turn To?” from the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd. The New Yorker had a field day when this show opened on Broadway, pointing out that it was a product of the same cookie-cutter that Bricusse and Newley used to create Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, which was best known for the song “What Kind of Fool Am I?” “Who Can I Turn To?” was almost blatantly a rehash of “What Kind of Fool Am I?” (To be fair however, Evans also recorded “What Kind of Fool Am I?” twice with Israels and Bunker.)
Still, where Evans is concerned, the sources of his tunes are less important than what he does with them. While he consistently opens with a clear statement of a tune, he quickly ventures into highly creative approaches to a diversity of variations. He also shares in that inventive process, particularly when it comes to giving Israels extended solos. Bunker’s contributions are equally engaging; but, as can easily be expected, there is little sense of either the tune or its own rhythms in Bunker’s inventive drumming. Instead, one appreciates what amounts to good-natured intrusions to interrupt the very process of playing the tune.
All of the selections that Evans’ trio performed for the BBC can be found on his Verve recordings. Nevertheless, watching the trio in the act of making music serves up more than its share of virtues. There is very much a sense of in-the-moment creation that is likely to draw the most attentive viewers to experience this video record more than once.
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